Roy is still young when his father, a failed dentist and hapless fisherman, puts a .44 magnum to his head and commits suicide on the deck of his beloved boat. Throughout his life, Roy returns to that moment, gripped by its memory and the shadow it casts over his small-town boyhood, describing with poignant, mercurial wit his parents' woeful marriage and inevitable divorce, their kindnesses and weaknesses, the absurd and comic turning-points of his past. Finally, in Legend of a Suicide, Roy lays his father's ghost to rest. But not before he exacts a gruelling, exhilarating revenge.


Revolving around a fatally misconceived adventure deep in the wilderness of Alaska, this is a remarkably tender story of survival and disillusioned love.

Revolving around a fatally misconceived adventure deep in the wilderness of Alaska, this is a remarkably tender story of loss, survival and disillusioned love.


About the Author
David Vann was born on Adak Island, Alaska and spent his childhood in Ketchikan. A contributor to The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Men's Journal, Outside and National Geographic Adventure, he is author of the best-selling memoir A Mile Down: The True Story of a Disastrous Career at Sea and a forthcoming novel, Caribou Island. He has been a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and a Wallace Stegner Fellow, taught at Stanford and Cornell, and is currently a professor at the University of San Francisco. Legend of a Suicide won the 2007 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction.

Reviews
An extraordinary, ground-breaking piece of fiction ... Nothing quite like this book has been written before * Alex Linklater, Observer *
A richly gifted newcomer * Sunday Times Books for 2009 *
Vann uses startling powers of observation to create strong characters, tense scenes and genuine surprises * Publishers' Weekly *
Oh my god, Legend of a Suicide just bowled me over completely. It is such a tender, heartbreaking, breathtaking, horrifying and insanely compelling read that when I finished it I went straight back to the beginning and round again. I implore anyone with functioning eyes to read this book * Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine *
So hard to put down that I am thinking of suing David Vann for several hours of lost sleep * Lionel Shriver *
This book squeezes more life out of the first hundred pages than most books could manage in a thousand, which is pretty impressive, considering it's a book about death * Ross Raisin, author of God's Own Country *
In his portrayal of a young son's love for his lost father David Vann has created a stunning work of fiction: surprising, beautiful and intensely moving * Nadeem Aslam, author of Maps for Lost Lovers *
One of the most gripping debuts I've ever read * Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan *
Impossible to put down and equally impossible to forget * San Francisco Chronicle *
An American classic ... harrowing but beautifully wrought ... prose as clear and bracing as a mountain stream * Sunday Times *
One jaw-droppingly powerful, courageous and original fiction debut...As a 10th work of fiction this would be impressive; as a debut, it is remarkable * Sunday Telegraph *
Hands down the best fictional debut we have read this year * Dazed & Confused *
For the imagery alone and for the sentences, the book would be a treasure, but the story it tells - the story of the suicide of the author's father - has an immediacy and sharpness made all the more special by the tone of distance in the narrative and the beauty of the writing * Colm Toibin, Observer books of the year *
David Vann's Legend of a Suicide is brave, fantastically well written, and completely defies categorisation * Julie Myerson, Daily Telegraph books of the year *
From the shores of Vann's Alaska one can see the Russia of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons ... 'A father, after all,' Vann writes, 'is a lot for a thing to be.' A son is also a lot for a thing to be; so is an artist. With Legend of a Suicide David Vann proves himself a fine example of both * New York Times *
From the shores of Vann's Alaska one can see the Russia of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons ... 'A father, after all,' Vann writes, 'is a lot for a thing to be.' A son is also a lot for a thing to be; so is an artist. With Legend of a Suicide David Vann proves himself a fine example of both * New York Times *
Impossible to put down and equally impossible to forget * San Francisco Chronicle *



Book Information
ISBN 9780141043784
Author David Vann
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 170g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 15mm